PLATTE RIVER

The 'Platte River' is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 310 mi. (499 km) long in the western United States. One of the most significant river systems in the watershed of the Missouri, it drains a large portion of the central Great Plains in Nebraska and the eastern Rocky Mountains in Colorado and Wyoming. The river was highly significant in the westward expansion of the United States, providing the route for several major westward trails, including the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail. In the 18th century, it was also known among French fur trappers who explored it as the 'Nebraska River'.

Contents

Description

History

Literary reference

See also

Description

The Platte River is formed in western Nebraska east of the city of North Platte by the confluence of its two affluents, the South Platte and the North Platte rivers, both of which rise in the eastern Rockies near the Continental Divide. It flows in a large arc, southeast then northeast, across Nebraska south of the Sandhills region, passing Gothenburg, Cozad, Kearney, and Grand Island. It is joined by the Loup River southeast of Columbus and flows east past North Bend then to Fremont, then south, passing south of Omaha and joining the Missouri north of Plattsmouth. Combined with the length of the North Platte, the Platte stretches over , with a drainage basin of .

The Platte drains one of the most arid areas of the Great Plains and thus its flow is considerably lower than rivers of comparable length in North America. For much of its length, it is a classic wide and shallow braided stream. During pioneer days, the common humorous description was that the Platte was "a mile wide at the mouth, but only six inches deep." This was also used to describe William Jennings Bryan, the famous Nebraskan politician. 49ers referred to it as "too thick to drink, too thin to plow". In western Nebraska, the banks and riverbed of the Platte provide a green oasis amid an otherwise semi-arid region of North America. The central Platte River valley is an important stopover for migratory water birds, such as the Whooping Crane and Sandhill Crane, in their yearly traversal of the Central Flyway.
This river has shrunk significantly in the past 70 years. This reduction in size is attributed in part to irrigation, and to a much greater extent to the waters dammed up and used by the growing population of Colorado, which has outstripped the ability of its groundwater to sustain them.

History

The first European to discover the Platte was the French explorer Étienne de Veniard, sieur de Bourgmont in 1714, who named it the ''Nebraskier'', an Oto word meaning "flat water". The French word for flat, ''Platte'', was later applied. The river provided valuable transportation for the French trade in furs with the
Pawnee and Oto native peoples.
The Platte lay in a gray area between Spanish and French claims in the Great Plains. Joseph Naranjo, a black explorer, had also encountered the Platte, and later guided the Villasur expedition there to stop French expansion. Theirs was the deepest penetration of Spanish exploration into the central plains.
Ceded to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase, the Platte was explored and mapped by Major Stephen H. Long in 1820. The Platte was used by American trappers, and played an important role in westward expansion during the 19th century. It provided fresh water, game, and a clear path westward for the pioneers. Both the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail followed the Platte (and the North Platte). In the 1860s, the Platte and North Platte furnished the route of Pony Express and later for the Union Pacific portion of the first transcontinental railroad. In the 20th century, its valley was used for the route of the Lincoln Highway and later for Interstate 80, which parallels the Platte (and the North Platte) through most of Nebraska.

Literary reference

In ''Centennial'', James A. Michener's epic novel about the West from prehistoric to modern times, the second chapter is about the geological history of the Platte River tributary. The river as stopover for sandhill cranes plays an important part in Richard Powers' 2006 novel The Echo Maker.

See also

★ List of Nebraska rivers